1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to integrated supply chain management and more particularly to an order cancellation management system that can optimize manufacturing activity of work-in-process products by adjusting the production routing and flow for product/work units of the cancelled order.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in integrated supply chain manufacturing systems, customers access an order management system to place product orders via a user interface, e.g., via a computer in communication with the Internet. Upon the generation of a valid order, a production configure-to-order (CTO) process is performed. CTO orders identify the parts or components that are needed for manufacturing of a certain product. These parts or components are stocked in various storage locations until identified and pulled for usage in the products. In today's manufacturing environment, many of the CTO orders are for one or more large complex systems. These large complex systems typically are comprised of multiple top level production units, commonly referred to as work units. The top level, e.g., parent, work units may be comprised of various subassembly, e.g., child, work units. For example, a server rack, which is a top level work unit, can include multiple drawers, which are subassembly work units, installed within the server rack. A single CTO order can include multiple server racks and/or other work units.
In order to fulfill a CTO order, various pieces (e.g., work units) of the order will flow through production during manufacturing. In this sense, multiple parallel production lines can operate simultaneously to produce various work units of the CTO order. The time for producing the various work units will vary during the production cycle. In other words, various work units will be in various stages of completeness or progress at different points in the production process. For example some work units can be completely assembled but not tested. Other work units can have some subassembly work units that are assembled and tested and other subassembly work units that have yet to commence assembly.
One issue that arises in the modern manufacturing environment is how to effectively handle an order cancellation to preserve manufacturing value-added production already performed on the cancelled order. Currently, when the cancellation of an order occurs, the standard industry practice is to halt all activity on that cancelled order. Afterward, a manual decision regarding how to dispense with the in-process order is made. Typically, the decision is to: 1) tear down the order into parts or 2) reapply to a new order. Other manufacturers permit one additional decision, which is to allow an entire system to progress to a certain stage of the manufacturing process. The problem with any of these options is that an order is made up of several pieces (e.g., work units) and each of these pieces (e.g., work units) will have a different status (or measurement of progress) in the manufacturing process. Each of these industry practices results in significant inefficiencies. Decisions to tear down are inefficient as all manufacturing value-added work will be lost on those parts (e.g., work units) of the system that are near completion. Decisions to reapply have similar negative implications. Finally, decisions allowing an entire system to proceed require that an entire system be assembled and then allowed to progress to a completion stage. The decision allowing an entire system to proceed results in the addition of excessive manufacturing activity, particularly with respect to those work units of the system for which assembly has not yet commenced.